Rio Riot

[Gotti]

I haven't heard from the forum many "brazilianists" any mention on Brazil's notoriously deteriorating economic condition. Despite I briefly mentoned on a 117 thread last week nobody touched it, and any mention of the staggering cost of living was promptly presented with "incredible" and dirty cheap alternatives. Well, today the whole thing exploded with bombs, blood and bullets, just check the New York Times (as of now on the first page) and possibly other news sites. The Real is on free-fall and while still very expensive is becoming very favorable for foreigners, and if keeps going on the same path, the country might become affordable in a foreseeable future.

Is not hard to imagine what most members are thinking: Is Brazil the next Greece? (Probably not).

Will the quality of the sauna-boys go back to what once was?

We will keep you posted.

[ihpguy]

Can we spell A-L-A-R-M-I-S-T?

The bus fares in Rio and Sampa went up but 20 centavos or less than a dime. And most employees here get a direct depoist into their accounts to pay for transportation to work from home. I guy I dated, and photos I posted, in 2011 got about 130Reais/months back then. I assume it has since gone up a bit.

This is more a protest against government spending and theft/misappropriation of funds. Last week, I think on Thursday, there was another protest in front of the Teatro Municipal. Lots and lots of security all over downtown. Even some helicopters up in the air. Not sure if for TV News or government security efforts. But there was not much going on except right at the protest sight on Praca Floriano and along the Rua Araujo Porto Alegre which runs in front of the opera house. Not sure about last night's festivities. I've got the BBC on and have read a bit about the scattered protests.

One big thing is the waste of money by Brasilia for stadiums in Cuiaba, Brasilia and Manaus that have been built for cities with no football teams to occupy them post-World Cup 2014. Just crazy stupid. Ditto the bad public healthcare system(and in my case, lousy private health care). This all reflects poorly on the second important matter,

Public eduaction in Brasil sucks. Really bad. For anyone in a first world country it is hard to quantify how awful the public school system is here. Wasting mooney on the World Cup with lack of investment in education is endemic of Brasil's problems and future successes for a population desirous to improve. This leads to the third problem that the protests brought up.

Government theft.

#1) Estadio Nacional Mane Garrincha - 1.5billion Reais for Brasilia and post World Cup, NO TEAM TO PLAY IN IT. As in the US for public/private partnership convention halls and stadiums, lots of vague promises for future varied uses than never come to fruition.

#2) Engenhao -just north of Meier, buit for the 2007 PanAm games and now closed as the supporting arches were built with substandard, too thin steel walls and in danger of falling down. Tough to explain but with oversights and kickbacks on government contracts, the easiest way to pocket some extra money is to use materials not up to code and let those that follow pay for repairs. This happens all of the time here. Hey, I'm sometimes surprised that Itaipu hasn't collapsed. Must be the quality for which Paraguay is known.

#3) They have already spent over a billion Reais on the REHAB of the Maracana after spending half a billion only 6 years ago for an earlier rehab

To say that the Real is in a free-fall is more than a bit alarmist. We are not exactly in the same situation as Spain, Greece or Cyprus. Fingers crossed. I think part of the reason for the dollar/real gain is the government here easing interests rates to counteract the economic slowdown.

[ihpguy]

I forgot to mention that the state governemnthere i n RJ, after investing over 1.5 billion Reais on the Maracana in seven years are now going to lease it out for basically nothing(for 20-30 years?) to a private group consisting of Odebrecht(privately-help Brasilian engineering firm with world-wide reach,) AEG(the Phil Anschutz sports group)Eike Batista(one of Brasil's richest men with his fingers in everything - and by the way, his Thor son recently convicted of manslaughter for killing a bicyclist while driving drunk in his McLaren SLR and no prison, of course) among others.